That Tan is NOT from a Tropical Location

February 21, 2014

Not to brag, but I just received a compliment from a cute waitress on the golden-brown tan that I’m sporting this week. Now, I’d like to say it’s from an exciting shoot we just wrapped in a faraway tropical location, but the truth is it’s actually the result of a week of exposure to the UV rays of arc welding. Yep, that’s right… arc welding. MIG to be precise.

You see for nearly 15 years MCOMM has been producing training videos for one of the world’s premier welding schools, the Hobart Institute of Welding Technology. HIWT teaches men and women from all over how to weld using virtually any process, from Oxy-Acetylene to TIG (my favorite by the way), and our videos are an important part of their curriculum.

Thus, the tan.

Turns out that to shoot a training video on welding, the camera guy (that’s me) has to be close to a hot, bright, arc (makes sense), and no matter how much clothing or sunblock the camera guy wears (that’s me), he’s still gonna end up golden-brown.

No complaints here though, we’re thrilled to partner with such a great company and hope to be showing off a great tan in the dead of winter for many years to come. Special thanks to Charlie Carpenter, one of HIWT’s best young instructors, for his patience and assistance this past week. Charlie is not only great with a MIG gun, he’s also a great guy.

By the way, if Monell Communications can help you with an upcoming training project, let us know, we’d love to get involved. Of course, after all those years of shooting welding, we can also give you a hand repairing a cracked trailer strut or bicycle frame.

On second thought, I think we’ll stick to video.

Until next time.

Ray Monell

therainman@monellcomm.net